Day 24. Seeing Isn’t Believing
We look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
From the lofty plane of your table top, those Cornerstones buried beneath the sands in the Ground of Reality might as well be on another planet. How can you judge whether they are worthy supports for your life if they remain hidden from view? Even if you did want to rest your pillars on them, how could you locate them? How can they be brought to light if you can’t see them? Actually, “light” and “sight” are not what’s needed for locating these Cornerstones. To pinpoint them, we must rely on another sense.
I’m using ‘sight’ here as a metaphor. ‘Sight’ represents what we can perceive and know with our natural senses. ‘Sight’ is all that is measurable, all that is testable, all that can be held or examined or experienced or quantified. Science, for example, deals exclusively in the realm of ‘sight’. Much of what is evident in your Level of Awareness is perceived by ‘sight.’
We must learn to depend on an entirely different sense now. Do you know what it is? Return in your imagination to the stone tabletop. Listen. At first you will hear only the howling wind and the creaks and groans of the structure (as well as the echoes of the media you have only recently tuned out). Gradually, your ears detect a different sound. A distant but clear tone. If you listen carefully, you hear it resonating in the air. You feel its rhythms resonating in the stone of your tabletop. Where does the music come from? The Cornerstone.
The diamond cornerstones resound night and day with the stirring melody of salvation. Buried so deep, the music is faint, yet for all who will take the time to listen, it is a song both terrible and beautiful. Mind you, many hear the sound but they think it is only the wind. You not only hear the sound, you listen attentively to it. You listen and feel the resonating tones with your whole being. What is this music? It is God’s revelation.
Jesus understands our limitations. He knows that we are blind. We can’t “see” him as the Cornerstone buried so deep beneath the sands. So he takes the initiative to show himself to us to reveal himself. Revelation is God’s way of showing. The primary channels of revelation are Scripture and Tradition. The music of salvation resonates between them like a clear note resounding between the parallel bars of a tuning fork. They attune our minds and our hearts to the Word of God; the voice of God. From this point on, they’re going to play a more central role in our journey into self-knowledge.
We must leave “seeing” behind for now. In moving the pillars of our table so that they rest on the Cornerstone, we must be guided by “hearing” rather than by “sight”. “Sight”, as I have said, represents what we can observe and experience with our natural senses. ‘Hearing’ represents the way of faith and belief – an entirely new way of perceiving reality.
It is said that “seeing is believing” but in fact it is ‘hearing’ that takes us into the realm of believing. ‘Hearing’ is the beginning of faith. “What was from the beginning, what we have heard ...concerns the Word of life...we now proclaim to you.” (1 Jn 1:1, 4)
The Word is “heard”. It comes to us through our ears. It touches our hearts and resonates there with the sound of music; the sweet rhythms of transformation and power. The Word invites us to faith. “Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17)
In our scientific, skeptical, “prove-it-to-me” world, faith is not recognized as another way of knowing – another way of touching reality. Faith is thought of as the abandonment of knowledge and a flight from reality. In fact, faith simply tells us what lies beyond the horizons of human reason and perception. How do we know? How can we be certain of what we cannot “see”? Faith responds: because I “hear” God’s Word. God has revealed it. And because it is God who has shown it, it is more reliable even than my own sense perceptions. This is “Faith for Beginners.” Welcome to Walking on Water 101.
But some may object. “I don’t have much faith. I’m just not the believing type.” The truth is that we all have the capacity for faith though we do not all possess the capacity to the same extent. God does not judge us for not having faith. He does judge us for not using the faith we’ve got, the faith He has given us. Remember the parable of the master who gave differing sums of money to his three servants? He commends the investments of the one who doubled his 200 just as he commends the one who returns his 500 times two. Only the one who fails to invest is condemned. Let us invest the faith that we have in the Word of God.
Whether our faith is great or small, we pray that God will increase our investment and strengthen our faith.
Lord, train our ears to the music of your Word. Grant us the gift of faith. We believe, Lord, help our unbelief!
Novena Prayer
Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Pier Giorgio responds: Our life, in order to be Christian, has to be a continual renunciation, a continual sacrifice. But this is not difficult, if one thinks what these few years passed in suffering are, compared with eternal happiness where joy will have no measure or end, and where we shall have unimaginable peace.
Let us pray: Blessed Pier Giorgio, teach me that I must be able to mourn if I will be able to rejoice. Show me how to face my sorrow, and not avoid it or pretend that it does not exist. Help me to enter into any present sorrow, so that my soul can empty itself and be filled with God’s peace.
Blessed Pier Giorgio, I ask for your intercession in obtaining from God, Who is our Consoler, all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I confidently turn to you for help in my present need: (in your own words, ask the Father to enable you to see yourself in his eyes, with his loving gaze).
A Book of Prayers in Honor of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, by Rev. Timothy E. Deeter
Make it My Own
Daily Discernment Workbook
BREAK OPEN YOUR BIBLE
1. Hearing is Believing.
Read the following passage about faith.
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
How can we know something is true if we’ve never seen it for ourselves; never proven it personally and empirically?
Below I consider the following things I believe truly exist without seeing. To the right are explanations of the ways I know these things without direct, personal, measurable proof. Can I connect the thing known with the way it can be known?
1. My mother’s love for me.
2. Nano-particles.
3. A country I’ve never visited.
4. Jupiter.
5. The historical man named Jesus who is also the Son of God.
a. Space-probes and telescopes provide evidence, but I know with certainty mainly because astronomers have attested to it.
b. Because she says so and I believe her.
c. I’ve seen pictures of it, but really I know it exists mostly because I’ve met people from there who told me about it.
d. Because of the testimony of his followers, recorded in the Bible, who died for their witness to his authenticity and divinity.
e. Not even sure what they are. But I believe in them. Don’t know why. Stop asking hard questions!
Drawing conclusions
What do all these ways of knowing what is true (‘a’ to ‘e’ above) have in common?
How does knowledge that comes from faith (hearing) differ from knowledge that comes from direct, personal proof (seeing)?
How is it the same?
SAINTS SAID IT
2. A Lesson from St. John of the Cross:
Faith is not knowledge which enters by any of the senses, but is only the consent given by the soul to that which enters through the ear. [1]
a. Write an explanation of this quote in my own words…
b. If faith comes from hearing, how important is the reliability of the one speaking? Give a modern example.
A QUOTE TO NOTE
3. Critical Thinking
We live in a skeptical time. Anything that can’t be proved through science is considered superstition. Because faith matters can’t be resolved scientifically they are dismissed. This is often called critical thinking. Read the following passage from philosopher Joseph Pieper and then answer this question: Who is the true critical observer, the one who holds everything to the highest standards of verification, or the one who believes without absolute proof?
Those who accept nothing as true and valid that has not withstood their own exacting investigation are generally regarded as critical observers. But what about the person who, fearing that by such a procedure he may overlook some element in the whole of truth, prefers to accept less complete certainty rather than incur a possible loss of contact with reality? Can he not also claim to be thinking critically? It is certainly a debatable question which of two medical procedures is the more “critical” when sheer saving of life is at stake: a procedure that accepts only absolutely tested methods, or one that considers every method that offers some reasonable promise of success, even though it may be based only on a presumption. (And surely we may say that divine speech addressed directly to men is not going to be trafficking in trivialities, that the “saving of life” is truly at stake.) At any rate, the person who is primarily concerned with missing nothing, with omitting no chance to arrive at the whole of such vital truth, can scarcely be charged with being of “uncritical mind” if he prefers “not [to] wait for the fullest evidence…and… show his caution, not in remaining, uninfluenced by the existing report of a divine message, but by obeying it though it might be more clearly attested.” (citing J.H. Newman’s “Faith Without Sight”) [2]
a. Who is the true critical observer, the one who holds everything to the highest standards of verification, or the one who believes without absolute proof? Honesty please!
b. What’s an example in my own life of a truth I’ve accepted without total proof that has, nevertheless, grounded me more firmly in reality? How has it blessed my life?
4. Faith Makes Me Powerful
It is often assumed that people who believe in God are weak; that faith is a crutch for those who can’t handle the challenges of life. According to the following quote from Cardinal Walter Kasper, how does faith, instead, make us strong?
Faith means ceasing to rely on one’s own capabilities, admitting human powerlessness. It is the recognition that human beings cannot help themselves by their own efforts and with their own resources, and cannot provide the basis for their own existence and its salvation. This means that faith is open to something other, something new, something to come. Because a believer no longer expects anything from himself, he expects everything from God, to whom all things are possible (Mk 10:27 par.). But when someone allows God to act in this way, the saying becomes true: ‘All things are possible to him who believes’ (Mk 9:23). It is a description of the essence of faith to say: faith is participation in the omnipotence of God.
Believing means trusting and building on the power of God which is at work in Jesus, making God the foundation of existence. It means letting God act, letting God go into action, letting God be God, giving him glory, recognizing his rule. Where people believe in this way, God’s rule becomes reality in the ordinary events of history. Faith is like the mold in which the Kingdom of God takes shape.
Faith makes me strong - how so?
PROCEED TO THE SECOND CONSECRATION RITE BELOW
Conclude with
“Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be.
World without end, Amen.”
[0] lead quote - New American Bible
[1] John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, tr. by E. Allison Peers, from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D., Triumph Books, edition 1991 in arrangement with Burns and Oates, U.S.A. Book II, Ch. III, par. 3, p. 68
[2] Joseph Pieper, Essay on Faith, tr. by R & C Winston, San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 1997 p.64
[3] Walter Kasper, Jesus the Christ, Paulist Press, 1976 tr. by V. Green, ch. II, 3, p. 82
SECOND CONSECRATION
Once again you’ll perform a short consecration rite using your Ebenezer. The elements of this rite are the same as the first.
You’ll need: olive oil, a teaspoon , a small dish or plate, a candle and the small stone you wrote your name on – your stone of help. You’ll also need a towel or some paper towels.
Go to your quiet, private place. On a level surface, place the dish with your Ebenezer in the center. Near the dish, place the candle and light it. Have the olive oil to your right along with the teaspoon.
HESED: SECOND CONSECRATION RITE
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Read aloud the story of Abraham’s vocation and the gift of circumcision. Genesis 17
Father in heaven, in his 99th year Abraham was consecrated to you and given a new name. He received from you a permanent mark, a sign in the flesh that set him and his descendants apart to be your special people.
Father, in baptism I received a permanent mark and I became a new creation. I became a member of the Body of Christ and one with the new People of God, the Church. Fulfill in me what you have begun through Jesus Christ your Son my Lord. Reveal to me the unique name that will be mine – the unique character of the call you have for me. I do not presume to demand what is completely your gift. I call upon you because you are merciful and because I place my faith in your promise.
Father, I am only clay. You formed me from the dust of the earth. It is your Spirit breathed upon me that makes me alive. It is this life which I have received that I also wish to give. Accept the gift that I am, Father. The gift that I first received from your hand. The gift of my own unique and unrepeatable life. It was yours in the beginning and you gave it to me. I now give it back in thanksgiving to you.
(pour olive oil into teaspoon, and then pour the teaspoon out over the stone in the center of the dish).
Father, I consecrate this stone to you and I rename it Hesed. The name is for your faithful, unfailing love which I call upon in trust. Father, I am often tempted to dislike myself and to disdain the gift that I am. I often feel unworthy and I often think that you don’t really love me. Whenever I feel this stone in my pocket, I will turn to your Son in confidence and pray ‘Lord Jesus, not to my name, but to your name be the glory.’ Father, when I pray, please remind me of your love for me – unconditional, total, deeply personal, fully for me. Father, let me see in my mind’s eye the love with which you look upon me. The face of my Father in heaven radiant with love for me. Though you see my faults, you also look on me with love. I accept your love, Father. And when I am tempted to doubt, I will hold onto my stone of help and call on the name of Hesed – to remind me that you love me perfectly, imperfect though I be.
Finally, Father, thank you for what you are showing me. It’s not easy to look honestly at my faults, but I thank you that my faults do not define me. I am your (son/daughter) and made in your image. Open my ears to hear the Word you speak to me and to hear your voice saying that I am good. Increase my faith in what I hear and let me trust more deeply in what you tell me.
All this I ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
Amen.
Hail Mary…
Amen.
Dry off your Ebenezer and return it to your pocket.
[0] lead quote - 2 Corinthians 4:18, NAB